Tell me a Story

Art collecting has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I buy art to tell my story. A secret diary as a witness to my life, if you will. Through each work I collect, I am reminded of different moments of pain or ecstasy in my life. Special memories or ....read more here.

(I am running a new blog from my own artist website, and would still love for you to read my blogs. So pardon the link on this blog, but I will keep on publishing everything on both blogs. 

If you would like to stay in touch, see my latest artwork sneak peeks or launches, please subscribe to my monthly newsletter here. Hope to hear from you in the comments! )

To love, or not to love. That is the Question...

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever." - The Notebook

If you would like to explore the highs and lows of love, relationships and solitude with me, please feel free to comment and discuss this topic with me. I am by no means an expert, but I truly believe in love. I just don't know how to define love, since I believe too many people confuse it with other things, like attachment or need. It is wonderful to be loved and be free at the same time.

To read some of my views, disasters and discussions, click here and join in!

Leave Out all the Rest

"Memory" Oil & pastel
Annemie Odendaal

I was young, he was handsome, we were in love. Life and love seemed just so easy back then. I just started working and he was a lawyer who knocked my feet out from under me. 

We dated for a while, but I was a free spirit, and just didn't want to be caged as yet. We parted friendly, and I started a very promising career in another city. 

Relationship Thermometer

I know this sounds a bit hypocritical since I lost myself a bit in a previous relationship. But trust me, it was a very high price to pay to regain my freedom and happiness, so hopefully you will find this information valuable beforehand, and not in hindsight like me ;-) 

This is just something I got off the internet (Cosmopolitan) before , so I can't take credit for it, but I thought it was the best advice I ever got! 

So with these tips always in mind, happy dating! And if you are in a relationship, read this to check whether you are still on the right track, or losing yourself in an unhealthy relationship.

A Journey to Happiness or Heartbreak

My husband and I have always been rather adventurous in life and embracing every challenge that comes our way, but this year we have embarked on the scariest journey of our lives. After seven years of marriage, we were ready to start a new chapter in our lives and start a family. Turns out it is not always the easiest thing to do...

After a few doctor's visits, we have decided to go to a Fertility Clinic, where we started with In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). For someone as terrified of doctors and needles as I am, it was quite a daunting prospect, but we committed to the process, so off we went with our purple bag full of magical pills, vials, needles, and a crash course in "how to become an overnight nurse", for my husband.

Too much love can kill you...

"Resonance"- Annemie Odendaal
Charcoal & Oil

Let me just start off by saying that I believe in love completely. Especially after my divorce. I am more certain than ever that love really is everything (1 Corinthians 13). I have also learnt that Love can only be Love if it is Freedom. Control is not love. Rules and changing someone is not Love. Compromising until you bleed is not Love. 

Apparently I am not the only one confused about the whole love / marriage thing. Books have been written, movies made and wars fought over Love, and I am still not any closer to understanding the full gravity of it.  After studying the Love Languages I do however grasp a bit clearer why some relationships just work, while others are hard work, frustration, fighting and doomed to fail.

To Regret or not to Regret...

Annemie Odendaal: "More lives than One"
Charcoal

I have always said that I regret nothing I have ever done in my life. Good or bad. It made me who I am today, it taught me lessons and it brought me to where I am at this moment in my life. 

Or did it?

Turns out there is one thing I did in my life, that I will regret forever, and that was getting married. Even though I am single again now, I just cannot shake the uneasy feeling that because of the mistake I made, I might be at the wrong place in my life right now.

Fat and Happy?

Annemie Odendaal: Oil & Charcoal
"The Weight of my Mistakes"

I used to think, and believe, that I am fat and happy. Over the past two years, I am embarrassed to say, I have picked up a substantial amount of weight. I just wrote it off to all our travels and love for good food and wine, and never really lost sleep over it. After my sudden divorce however, I just started losing weight spontaneously. I did not put in any effort, and I wasn't in mourning, denying myself of good care and food. No, it just-happened.

That's when I started thinking. Is your weight gain a symptom of something else that might be wrong in your life, something bigger that you might not even be aware of?